- The EU wants to make it easier to take assets off sanctioned Russian oligarchs, per Reuters.
- The proposal would mean it would be illegal to violate or evade EU sanctions, the report said.
- An EU justice commissioner said proceeds from the assets would be sent to Ukraine.
The European Union wants to introduce rules to make it easier to seize assets owned by Russian oligarchs and billionaires who have been sanctioned amid the Ukraine war, Reuters first reported.
The European Commission is expected to present the proposal on May 25, according to a provisional agenda seen by Reuters. The proposal would make it illegal for people to violate or bypass EU sanctions everywhere in the bloc, Didier Reynders, the EU justice commissioner, said in a press conference on Wednesday, cited by Reuters.
"We are working on a European tool to make confiscations [against sanctioned individuals] possible everywhere in all EU states," Reynders said, per Reuters.
Reynders said the proceeds from the assets — whether they're yachts, jets, or properties — would then be sent to Ukraine.
Individuals who attempt to hide their assets from sanctions by transferring them to family members or associates would be committing a crime, Reynders said, according to the Reuters report.
The proposal requires the backing of all EU member states' governments, Reynders added.
Violating sanctions in some EU states is considered illegal and seizures take place immediately. In other EU states, however, members don't confiscate assets as quickly because violations aren't taken as seriously, Reynders said, cited by Reuters.
The European Commission didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment made outside of normal working hours.
Seizing oligarchs' assets poses several logistical and legal challenges, especially when trying to determine who is the official owner of the vessels, planes, and houses amid a web of shell corporations.
The EU has already detained some assets of sanctioned Russian oligarchs, including Alisher Usmanov's $606 million superyacht, Andrey Melnichenko's $575 million Sailing Yacht A, and Gennady Timchenko's $38 million yacht.